Weekly Updates

Week 14 of Homeschool: We learned about fractals, including the Mandelbrot, Sierpinski Triangle and Koch Snowflake, worked on our “th” and “sh” sounds, learned about Angiosperm, Gymnosperm, Seedless Vascular Plants and Non-vascular plants, worked on Spanish, learned about the historical context of Moses and the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, wrote about the process of making textiles for a coat, wrote sentences using Latin words, and created cardioids using multiplication!

Week 13 of Homeschool: We learned about the Muslim Empire, found examples of plants that don’t use capillary-action and drew illustrations (moss), reflected on everything we love about November, read about Ahaz’s idolatry, built math domino falls, reviewed our Latin 5th Declension Noun Endings and famous Latin sayings, added leaves to our Thankfulness Tree, completed our list of Prepositions, finished our Reading Readiness book (Francis!), learned about photosynthesis, respiration and transpiration, memorized our Tablespoon and teaspoon conversions, had fun making a collage to classify animalia and plantae, and watched our first (of two) chrysalis hatch into a beautiful butterfly!

Week 12 of Homeschool: We went on a plant nature walk and collected samples, learned about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, had fun doing math with our abacus, wrote poetry, skip counted the cubes, learned how to read a map grid, painted rocks, enjoyed the wonder and beauty of Lake Tahoe, worked on Spanish, practiced our Penmanship, studied 5th declension noun endings, learned about Emperor Constantine and the Byzantine Empire, played fun songs on our tin whistles, worked on Javascript, learned some more parts of a flower, and read about biology and found examples in nature, including salmon, a beaver dam, pond-ice, birds and and a bear!

Week 11 of Homeschool: We did a Geology Scavenger Hunt, learned about Japan’s Heian Period, worked on Handwriting, studied ancient Africa, did math with our Abacus, built 2 games using circuits, wrote a poem about Classical Conversations, read our first book on our own (Francis!!!), found Japan’s major landmarks on maps, read about Anansi, wrote poems for our Grandparents, read more in Treasure Island, skip-counted the squares, learned the 6 main shapes of leaves, made traditional African Hand art, studied Latin and our 4th Declension Noun Endings, read the Magic Bicycle, and caught 2 caterpillars and watched them go into their chrysalises!

Week 10 of Homeschool: We studied ancient China, wrote out Robert Frost poetry, skip counted the 15’s, went GeoCaching (with no luck yet, after 3 tries), read the first 5 chapters of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, brainstormed and wrote a key word outline based on our research of Ellis Island and wrote 3 paragraphs, learned more prepositions, wrote an original poem called “A Year In California (Field wrote – I love the first few lines!), designed our names with the Scratch coding program, learned about Lao-Tzu, Confucius and Taoism, looked at the parts of a plant, carved Jack-O-Lanterns and decorated pumpkin cookies with our cousins, studied Spanish, worked on Latin 4th Declension Noun Endings, and went with Granny & Grampy to see Treasure Island at the B Street Theatre!

Week 9 of Homeschool: We wrote a story about Thin Man (a character from Field’s original graphic novel series), made neck ties out of Duct Tape, learned about the 4 hemispheres of Earth, skip counted 14’s, wrote Madjectives, learned more prepositions, gathered specimens of monocots and dicots to compare and contrast, learned about the first cities of India, studied Latin 3rd Declension Noun endings, worked on our drawing, painting and collage skills, and built Snap Circuits!

Homespun Homeschool Week #8: We skip counted 13s, put on a puppet show, learned some ways animals reproduce, read in A Bear Called Paddington, learned about Hinduism and Buddhism in India, studied the Assyrians and read about Gilgamesh and the Lion, learned new prepositions, worked on musical dynamics with our tin whistles, learned Latin 3rd Declension noun endings, wrote Limericks, located the ancient Roman Empire on our maps, practiced Dazzling Division with plates and crackers, worked on Javascript, wrote about the African American poet Phillis Wheatley, made a paper spider to overcome our fear of spiders, and went to Fairy Tale Town!

 

 

Week 7 of Homeschool: We practiced our handwriting, painted abstract art, made Winnie The Pooh’s Honey Eggnog, wrote haiku’s, sonnets and limericks, reviewed Latin, learned about Hammurabi and the Babylonians, made a volcano and watched it erupt, wrote “The Story of The Beams” and presented it to our Classical Conversations Community, learned how an egg hatches into a chick, built a buzzing circuit game, watched our bean plant sprout beans, used string and paper to watch capillary action in action, built a Rube Goldberg chain reaction and painted pumpkins!

 

 

 

 

 

Week 6 of Homeschool: We moved to level 2 of our stack-and-build math flip books, colored a Biblical graphic novel of the life of Joseph, worked on handwriting, studied vertebrates and made “snakes” by rubbing crayons on bike tires, started reading All Creatures Great And Small, read Matthew 6:25-34 and crafted scenes depicting the passage, skip counted 11’s and 12’s, learned about ancient Sumeria and Mesopotamia, worked on reading, wrote an original graphic novel in our Hardy Boys journal, learned new prepositions, and went to Bishops Pumpkin Farm!

Week 5 of Homeschool: We skip-counted our 9’s and 10’s, went to the Crocker Art Museum and had a private tour with Grampy (retired Crocker Docent!), made a paper-clip version of our family, studied the lines of the globe, built a rainbow colored dinosaur, learned about Ancient Egypt and built the pyramids of Giza, learned the types of invertebrates, studied Spanish, worked on coding, learned new prepositions, watched our bean plants grow flowers, worked on our handwriting, and made pumpkin pie spice sugar cookies!